Awarded.

Last year my very good friend and fellow photographer Matt Allan convinced me to enter some photos into an international juried competition.  I’ve never decided to enter a competition before, and Matt convinced me that the calibre of this particular competition was worth the shot.

The International Loupe Awards set out to distinguish themselves from other photographic awards in a number of ways, but in the main it’s the preservation of the artisits rights that is as important as the juried judging system that is used (if you’re interested there is more information on judging on their website).  Many competitions are little more than image sites gathering photos that they may then sell commercially, with rights being handed over from the photographer to the competition organiser buried down in the fine print.  This is one of the main reasons that I haven’t entered competitions before – my desire to continue to own my own images! The International Loupe Awards supports The Artists Bill Of Rights, which fosters support for both the copyright and moral rights of artists, including photographers.  If you’re any kind of an artist I urge you to visit The Artists Bill Of Rights.

Last Minute.

Unfortunately, Matt convinced me to enter some images with only a few hours left until the competition closed, so the rush was on.  A mad scramble through the last couple of years of images, and I managed to come up with three that I really liked, and a fourth which was mainly because the competition lets you put every fourth entry in for free.

This final choice was made literally 5 minutes before the competition ended, and only just got uploaded in time:

Entered in the “Landscape” category, I never really expected this photo to do particularly well, so I wasn’t surprised when it rated fairly low in the field, pulling 65 points out of possible 100.

The next two images, entered into the “People and Portrait ” category both rated similarly in the mid 70′s.  Both similar and yet both different:

These two images have a fairly good story behind them, which will be related here at a later time, and I’m immensely proud of the results, and while these scored well I’m still a bit surprised that they didn’t quite get over the line to get awarded.

Across the Line.

My final image was the first one that I picked for the competition.  I took this photo while on the Scott Kelby International Photowalk in 2011, while walking through The Rocks district on Sydney Harbour.  The only thing I had to do to it was crop it a little to get it ready:

This image was scored somewhat higher, and gained me a Bronze award (and in case you can’t tell, it’s a glass blower building the body of a glass dragon).  This one has now been printed about 1.5m wide and hangs proudly next to where I do all my editing – not bad for the first time out.

Cheers,

- Michael

Web: www.slice-of-life.smugmug.com
Blog: photorhubarb.wordpress.com
Email: justgreatphotos@gmail.com
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Tags: Blue Mountains Photographer, Boudoir, Glamour, Lingerie, Photography, Portraiture, Slice of Life Photography, Western Sydney Photographer

• February 14, 2012
• Blue Mountains Photographer, Boudoir, Glamour, Landscapes, Lingerie, Photography, Slice of Life Photography, Western Sydney Photographer
• 4 comments